Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-10-13
ROUGHING IT.

in that suit"
We had it rough, Molly and !, for
five years. We were New-England-
ers, both of us; but had come West
years before, when | wasn't much
more than boy, to get rid of the
lung-fevers used to have every
spring sure, and maybe the fall be-
tween thrown in. | had nothing but
my two hands to start with; but as
soon as I'd made a beginning
small one, of course--I went back fcI
Molly.
And then, as / said, for five years
we had it rough.
In the first place. We were burned
ont in the towr, and never saved a
thing but the clothes we stood in and
my team. Then we started again out
on the edge of everything, where land
was cheap, and it looked as if hard
work might count for something.
That timelndians ran us off. Never saw
an Indian? Well, sir, you never want
to don't want TO be hard on any
thing the Lord saw fit to make. /
suppose He knows what they are for
Il know there's a good deal of talk
lately about their wrongs. They We
had en-, sure enough; maybe l don't
see things all round as / ought to.
They say all general rules bear
on particular cases. I'm one of the
particular cases. perhaps. Anyhow,
they killed one of the children there
the girl, five years old; shot her right
in full sight of the cabin, and Molly
hasn't got over it till this day.
picked up few head of cattle
cheap that fall, and for year we lived
in q wagon, camping and driving our
know what that life means for a
woman, take it month in and month
out. Cooking over campfire, and
not much of anything TO COOK. any
how; clothes wet half the time; never
warm in winter nor cold in summer,
and never clean. That year the boy
died-snake-bit. We were so far from
settlement that we couldn't get a
doctor, and we buried him ourselves.
We got into cabin in the fall.
Four of us. each one poorer than the
others, took a section of Government
land. We had our teams and our
:
not much of anything to lose and
everything to gain. "A man viii work
under such circumstances you'll find.
We built in the middle on the adjoin-
ing corners of our quarters, and 50
had little settlement of our own.
We did it for the sakSof the women,
for it made an almighty sigh; Of trave4
for us to get over inthe course Of the day.
They were all New England women,
slender and spare, but solid grit clear
through. Plymouth Rock is pretty
good stock. Never q whimper nor a
complaint out of one Of them, though
there wasn't second frock in the
crowd; and if there was always corn
bread and coffee enough for two in
any of the shanties it wasn't in ours.
After awhile, though, we had game
enough-quail and prairie chickens.
Prairie chickens! | wouldn't be hired
to touch one now. l remember one
day along toward spring when Molly
struck. We had had quail and prairie
chicken, prairie chicken and quail,
three times day ever since / could
remember, it seemed to me. She put
her fork down and pushed her plate
away and just quoted out of the Bible:
mot one day, nor two days, nor five
days, neither ten days. nor twenty
days, but even until it come out at
your nostrils and be loathesome unto
you" Molly knew the Bible.
1t really began to look as if we had
touched bottom. That next spring we
got our crops in-corn laid by, rain
and sunshine and hot weather all just
right; and now and then we would
hear laugh from the houses.
But the day the grasshoppcrs came
there was mighty little laughing done.
Clayton came in where | was taking
my noon smoke and kind of dropped
down in a chair by the door as if he
couldn't get any farther.
"Mountaineersw he said. with
kind of gasp.
WHAT" | said, not knowing but it
was another kind of an Indian.
"Grasshoppersl" 1t seems he had
been there before.
ran out, and sure enough there
they were, coming up against the sun
like low kind Of cloud. And in
minute or two it was like being out in
a live hail-storm. We tried to fight
them with fire and hot water, but we
gave it up in an hour. All day we sat
and listened to that horrible cracking
and crunching, and when they got
through it looked as if fire had gone
over us. Not a green thing left, and
corn-stalks gnawed down to stumps.
We hela n council of war. The end
of it was that we drove our stock into
the town next day, thirty miles, and
sold it. 1t didn't make us rich, but at
least we got the price of tie hides.
Then three of us went to work in the
coal-shippings. and Jim Clayton went
back to stay with the women He had
smashed his shoulder that summer and
was of no mortal use with shovel and
pick. We were to keep them in sup
plies, and it looked as if, after all,
things might have been worse.
And they got worse before a great
while. The coal company petered out
Just as the real cold weather set in.
We took back big load of coal; it was
the only pay we ever got for cur last
fortnights work, and we called an
other council.
Along in November late-about the
time when they were keeping Thanks
giving on the side where they know
what Thanksgiving mcans-we started
out on "A buffalo hunt. There was en-
ough to eat, such rs it was, for a
month in the cabins, and fuel enough
to keep them warm; and by that time
we thought work might begin again.
Anyway, we'd have our meat for the
rest of the winter.
Well, it's no use to 20 over that. II
wasn't a pleasure trip. We weren't
out for the fun of killing. We camped
out at night and rode and shot and
dressed game by day, and did not
starve nor quite freeze to death; and
we got back again onto the plains
along in December.
| wanted to push through and get
home, but the horses were played out;
and all the next day, after we struck
the level we just crawled along. We
had not heard a word since we started,
and | was pretty auxious-Molly was
not well when left her; but there was
no choice about it. / had to 90; the
women were with her, and there was
a doctor in the town, and Clayton had
a good hcrse, and we had to do about
that as we had done about everything
else take our c.ances.
shan't forget that day. Along in
the middle of the morning a northeT
began to blow. II did not snow, al
though the sky thickened up with
gray. woolly-looking clouds, low down
and threatening. You never felt
,orfbo.o a t--fpJ fLaf f,ooc fhr.nt,crh